JoanneConnors-Wade is a native of Massachusetts. She enjoys a challenge and beomes engrossed in extensive research which she believes is the key to credibility within a story whether fiction or non-fiction. Joanne is the mother of three adult children, and the grandmother of four. On November 1, 2007 she moved from her native Massachusetts to Florida where continues to write and promote her books.
UPDATE: December, 2011 she returned to Massachusetts and presently resides in Westfield.
Awards/CertificatesFlorida Certified Guardian ad Litem,Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Awards,Member of Cambridge Who's Who Registry AchievementsGraduate of Westfield High School class of 1961,Associate Degree-Education at Westfield State College, Instructor and tutor ESL classes at International Language Institute/Northampton, MA Guest Speaker: Libraries, Colleges, Rotary/Exchange Clubs, Women's Clubs, Community Organizations Volunteer work: Public schools, re-hab facilities,Nominee for Tutor of the year/Massachusetts Author three published books
Local Author offers the novel that challenges the most discriminating murder mystery reader
With two successful true crime books to her credit, Joanne Connors-Wade offers her third book, “The Manuscript,” a fictional murder mystery.
Drawing on the extensive research and knowledge of actual investigative methods and procedures gathered from her previous publications, Wade offers a fictional murder mystery with amazing authenticity and a keen eye on detailed investigative procedures..
Truly a ‘who done it’ novel with twists, turns, and surprising developments from start to finish. “The Manuscript” is a compelling search for a killer. The author invites the reader to join in the investigation as the clues and evidence systematically unfold, challenging the amateur sleuth to arrive at an independent conclusion to solve the case. Surprising details are guaranteed to captivate the most discriminating murder mystery fan.
Connors-Wade is the author of “A Thread of Evidence” published in 2005 and “No Tomorrows” published in 2006. Both address true accounts of brutal homicides.
“A Thread of Evidence” recounts the slaying of a 14-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy in her care. The true story occurred in Springfield, Massachusetts on September 24, 1954.
“No Tomorrows” addresses the abduction/murder of six Massachusetts children. In addition to the victims’ stories, the book uncovers conflicts within the Catholic Church and the legal ramifications the church confronted when allegations of child abuse began to surface.
Author, Joanne Connors-Wade is a Massachusetts native and has recently made her home in Fort Myers, FL
Her previous publications have garnished favorable reviews since their releases and she continues to participate in book discussions, signings through local organizations as well as book clubs and bookstores.
Her books are available on line through Amazon.comBarnes&Noble.comAuthorhouse.com and may also be ordered at your local bookstore. For further information, upcoming events, book descriptions including preview/excerpts, go to www.jconnors-wade.blogspot.com
This article appeared in the Springfield Republican Sunday Edition
'Thread of Evidence' key to brutal Springfield murder
Sunday, June 26, 2005
By MARY ELLEN LOWNEY
mlowney@repub.com
Anyone who lived in Springfield a half-century ago will surely remember the early autumn
night when Hurricane Hazel howledthrough the city and a teenage babysitter and her 4-year-old charge
were brutally murdered in a Forest Park home. But even those who can't recall the Sept. 25, 1954, slayings
of Lynn Ann Smith and little Steven Ross Goldberg will be heldunder the spell of "A Thread of Evidence,"
a fictionalized account of the grisly crime and its wrenching aftermath.
Author Joanne Connors-Wade was 10 at the time and lived nearby on
and were allowed to roam freely outdoors, she remembers the terror that gripped the city.
"It was all anybody talked about. Everything was so tense," said Connors-Wade,
now 61 and a resident of Lunenburg. "I can remember being scared. The adults were scared.
I was 10, and there was a 14-year-old and a 4-year old murdered.
I felt right in the middle of it," she said.
Worse yet, it took two weeks to identify the killer, and the situation appeared
all the more baffling when he turned out to be a neighbor,
an 18-year-old boy who seemingly had no motive for the murders.
Kenneth R. Chapin's stoicism during his confession - police told the press
that he coolly smoked a cigar as he spilled out his story –
and during his arrest, trial and original death sentence, later changed to life in prison,
made his story even more chilling. At the time of the killings, he was a junior at the former
TechnicalHigh School and served as a pallbearer at the wake of Lynn Ann, who was
a ninth-grader at Forest ParkJunior High School.
Chapin was apprehended after police matched the single clue they
found at the murder scene, a piece of off-white embroidery thread he had
used to tie paper around the blade of a bayonet-style knife, with a spool from
his home turned over by his mother.
Chapin hid the knife up the sleeve of his jacket that night for the short walk from his
home on to the Goldberg home, where he stabbed Lynn Ann 38 times and the
young boy 24 times. He also snapped Lynn Ann's neck with a thrust of the
wooden end of his knife.Another child, Steven's 6-year-old brother Robert,
was there that night but slept through the 9:30 p.m. slayings.
For Connors-Wade, the ordeal planted the seeds of a dream to one day write a book, though it took her 50 years to do it. The 312-page tome is a compelling account of the crime, with all the names and geographic sites changed. Kenneth Chapin is "Karl Chapman," Lynn Ann Smith is "Lynn Ann Clarke" and Steven Goldberg is "David Rosen" in the book. Springfield is "Stanfield" and Forest Park, "Springdale."
The paperback book, self-published by AuthorHouse of Bloomington, Ind., is available at www.authorhouse.com, or by requesting it in any bookstore.
Connors-Wade said she stuck to the facts of the story, though she had to rely on her imagination for dialogue and the mental states of Chapin, the victims, and the grief-stricken families left to deal with their losses.
Many of those involved are now dead.
In her research last year, Connors-Wade found and contacted one member of Smith's family, who chose not to be interviewed but was unopposed to the idea of the book. She spent time with Thomas P. Moriarty, register of Hampden Probate and Family Court, son of the late Thomas Moriarty, who was the lead detective on the case. She also met with the only surviving detective, Francis Gallagher, now retired and living in Wilbraham.
Connors-Wade also poured through piles of court documents and newspaper accounts from the former Springfield Union and The Daily News, since merged to The Republican. She also had much help from Suzanne Kelly, head administrative assistant in the criminal office of Hampden Superior Court.
Sitting down to write her first book, Connors-Wade found the words flowed. It took her all of 10 months to complete it.
"I've been saying for years I'm going to write this book, but I didn't think I knew how. One day I just sat down and started writing, and it just kept coming," said the mother of three and grandmother of four.
Connors-Wade carries readers through the trial, death sentence and commutation by then-Gov. Christian A. Herter. On the final page, readers learn that Chapman/Chapin died of heart failure in 1996 at state prison in Shirley. He was 60.
Published in Hampshire Gazette
Edwards Public Library hosts first-time author
By MAGGIE SHADER Staff Writer
[ This story was published back on Thursday, October 06, 2005 ]
SOUTHAMPTON - The Edwards Public Library took a trip back in time recently when first-time author Joanne Connors-Wade visited to discuss her self-published novel, based on a double homicide in Springfield 50 years ago.
In her book ''A Thread of Evidence'' Connors-Wade offers a fictionaized account of the stabbing deaths of 14-year-old babysitter Lynn Ann Smith and one of the young boys in her care, 4-year-old Steven Ross Goldberg
Although based on a real event, Connors-Wade changed the names of the places and people involved, and although the events took place she uses her imagination to write her characters' personalities and motivations.
Connors-Wade, 61, who now lives in Lunenburg, was 10 years old and living on
''I lived only a few blocks away when it happened, I didn't know the families at the time,'' she said, adding that she had no idea about the torment the families of the deceased must have gone through. ''It was just so gruesome.''
On Sept. 25, 1954, the murderer walked to the Goldbergs' home carrying a knife hidden in his coat. After gaining entry to the house he stabbed the young girl 38 times and the small boy 24 times, said Connors-Wade. Six-year-old Robert Steven Ross was also in the house but went undetected, asleep in his bed.
According to Connors-Wade the police picked up 100 suspects. She said her cousin was one of the many neighborhood men questioned by police because on the night of the murders he was in a car accident in the vicinity of the Goldberg home.
Kenneth Chapin, 18, of Springfield, was brought in for questioning after police found a piece of thread at the murder scene and matched it to a spool that his mother had turned over. According to the news papers Chapin not only confessed but spoke in detail about the two killings.
''He talked for hours about how he did it,'' Connors-Wade said. ''He had a real penchant for knives.''
Connors-Wade said that the thread was the only piece of evidence the police had, and that Chapin had used it to secure a piece of paper around the knife.
Chapin was sentenced to life in prison after a very public trial that, according to Connors-Wade, became politicized when Gov. Christian Herter pushed to have Chapin's life in prison sentence reduced. Chapin died in prison at the age of 60.
One member from the 13-person audience at Edwards Library asked the author why the murderer wasn't electrocuted.
''Read the book,'' she said, laughing.
''A Thread of Evidence'' came out this past May, and took the author less than a year to write. She self-published the book through AuthorHouse of Bloomington Ind.
''I self-published because I didn't know how to contact an agent or a publisher,'' Connors-Wade said. ''I had to kiss a lot of frogs before I got anything that resembled a prince.''
She said she researched the murder by studying the newspaper stories and court transcripts, and by speaking to court officials who remembered the case.
Another person at the presentation asked why she chose to write a fictional account of the event after doing so much research.
''I wanted to be able to spread out a little more,'' she said, adding that she enjoyed having the freedom that a fictional account allowed her.
''I wrote the book in chunks, and then put it all together,'' Connors-Wade said. ''I wanted it to start with a big bang.''
She designed the cover herself, and wanted it to reflect a dark and sinister night. Not until after she began her research did she discover that the double murder took place the night that storm winds from Hurricane Hazel hit the city of Springfield.
Connors-Wade said that she had wanted to write this story for a while, and that it had been in her head for years.
''I'd like to see a screenplay; I think this is a natural made-for-television,'' she said. She says she wants to start a second book and thinks it is only a matter of time before she writes her next crime novel.
AUTHORVISITSWESTFIELDHIGH SCHOOL
Joanne Connors-Wade Discusses New Book, “A Thread of Evidence”
Joanne Connors-Wade, a former Westfield resident, addressed students at WestfieldHigh School.
Ms Wade recently penned ‘A Thread of Evidence’ an account of the brutal slaying of a 14-year-old babysitter and the 4-year-old boy in her charge. Although written as fiction, it adheres to the actual event. It is a compelling account of superb detective work and unprecedented dedication of an entire police department. Ms Wade draws on her personal recollections of the 1954 crime and utilizes it as a springboard for the intriguing story that unfolds and is delivered to the reader.
Through extensive visits to the Springfield Library over several months, Ms Wade searched the newspaper’s archives finding articles that covered the story on a daily basis.
With the cooperation of the Superior Court of Springfield, she was able to view the actual log books which reflected the court proceedings, and the final outcome of the trial.
“I was amazed that so many people recalled the case. It was the most atrocious crime in the history of Springfield at that time,” said Wade.
“When I’ve been invited to speak, the turnouts are very favorable. Most of the attendees of these discussion groups have personal recollections to contribute. Some recall the victim’s family, some the murderer’s family. The evening becomes an open forum, and quite interesting.”
Joanne Connors-Wade is a graduate of WestfieldHigh School, class of 1961, and a resident of Westfield until 1995. She has two daughters, Darlene Carmolli of Chelmsford, Lori Davison of Westfield and one son, Ken Davison, also of Westfield.
Presently, she lives in Central Mass with her husband, Stephen.
Asked if she will be writing another book, Ms Wade replied, “Yes, I’ve already started it. It will be the same genre, but it will be non-fiction.”
Ms Wade is available for book signings/speaking/discussion. She is scheduled to visit the Westfield Library on January 11.
A Thread of Evidence may be purchased through Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and most bookstores.
This appeared on the internet Tom Devine's website
About Danny
A new book takes a look at the Croteau case.
Joanne Wade is a true-crime writer who has made a career out of writing about notorious Western Mass murders. Her first book, A Thread of Evidence was a thinly fictionalized account of the notorious Chapin murder case, which shocked the city in the 1950's, back when Springfield was still innocent enough to be shocked by crime.
Now Wade has a new book No Tomorrows, featuring true life essays on murdered children, which includes a section on Springfield's most infamous unsolved murder, the slaying of Danny Croteau. It also includes other unsolved child murder mysteries, such as Agawam's Lisa Ziegert. The book doesn't have much in the way of new material regarding these cases, but it is still fascinating to have all the information on these crimes, dribbled out by the media over the years, all collected in one place. Nothing would be better than to have this book jog someone's memory in a way helpful to solving these mysteries.
Many times when I tell people that I knew Danny Croteau there is a pregnant pause, as if they expect me to follow that revelation with some pearl of insight into his murder. If so, then they are always disappointed because I have no insights to offer. For one thing I didn't know Danny that well. He lived in 16 Acres and I in ol' Pine Point, so our paths may not even have crossed at all except that the Boy Scout troop I belonged to was a joint troop of boys from both my church, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, and Danny's which was called Saint Catherine. Danny also attended Our Lady of the Sacred Heart school, which was just a half a block from where I grew up. In fact the most famous picture of him, the one they always run with news accounts, is of Danny posing for a portrait in his OLSH uniform, as shown in the background of the picture below of Danny's parents.
The media always likes to refer to Danny as "an altar boy" but I never knew that about him when he was alive. It would have made no impression on me if I did, lots of kids (but never me) were altar boys, it was the sort of thing your parents would push you to do and had no real significance. I think the media likes to describe him as an altar boy because it makes the crime seem that more heinous - "Altar Boy Brutally Murdered!" is a catchy headline. From what I remember of Danny he was much more of a hellion than an altar boy, smoking cigarettes and experimenting with marijuana and alcohol even at the age of twelve. I think this picture more accurately captures his impish and mischievous character:
I sometimes wonder whether I would remember Danny at all if he hadn't been murdered. I was older than him, and he and his friends were dismissed by us older scouts as "the little kids." When I try to recall who the other little kids were I can't do so well, which makes me think that it was Danny's death, and it's violent manner, that burned him permanently into my psyche. Danny was the first person in my age group to die, and certainly he was the first person I knew who had been murdered. I can't tell you what my emotions were at the time, I try to remember but it's a blank. The code we lived by as boys would not have allowed any outward display of emotion and we were all pretty much encouraged to bury whatever feelings we had.
Danny's was a very inconvenient murder in many ways, which is why I think it was never solved. For one thing, the only suspect was a Catholic priest, Rev. Richard Lavigne, in an era when the moral authority of the church was never questioned. Lavigne was also a political figure, a leftist priest typical of the time who fought for left-wing causes in the name of "social justice." Therefore the local liberals always wanted the Rev. Lavigne front and center at all their political rallies, his priestly collar providing proof of the moral superiority of their cause. Now all those liberal Democrats, some of whom went on to play prominent roles in Springfield politics, all behave as if they never knew him.
I also knew Father Lavigne, but there was nothing unique about that. To be a Catholic boy in Springfield of a certain age meant that you were certain to meet Father Lavigne. Frankly, I thought nothing bad about him at the time and can offer no insights into whether or not he was Danny's murderer.
However I will repeat what I always vow whenever I think about Danny Croteau, which is that if there is a crumb of justice in this world, then somebody, someday is gonna pay for that crime.
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